Friday 14th August 2015
Sam and Tom were sat in the waiting room at the vets once more, with Shadow lying down underneath their seats to keep away from the strangers in the room. Sam was 37 weeks pregnant, and Shadow was 42 days pregnant - she was starting to show - as they were waiting for the results of Shadow's X-ray to determine how many puppies she was carrying.
"So are we agreed that if she is carrying five, then we can keep four and give Fletch one?" Sam queried as she traced her fingers in a swirling pattern over her large bump. She was three weeks away from her due date, but her baby was yet to drop so she was still experiencing breathlessness, though she didn't yet have too much pressure on her bladder, she was just waiting for that to come when her son dropped into the birth canal.
"Yes, but only if, Fletch does agree to take on a puppy because he haven't actually asked him yet." Tom stated.
"Shadow?" Sarah announced. And so both adults got up, but Shadow was still cowering under the chairs.
"C'mon. You've gotta come out sometime." Sam stated bluntly as she tugged on the lead gently but Shadow had slammed the breaks on and she wasn't coming out. She just pulled backwards towards the door that she knew was where she could exit the terrifying place.
"Well I can tell you here if you want, I've only got to tell you a number and then you can go." Sarah offered.
"Yeah that's fine." Tom nodded as Sam continued to try and coax Shadow out.
"Now as I told you before, it's not definitely right but it looks to me as if she's carrying four puppies with four separate placentas." She stated.
"Woah!" Sam exclaimed as Shadow suddenly made a dart for the door but Tom grabbed the dog's lead before Sam's arm was pulled off and he held the leash tightly.
"So this is probably the last time that we see her before she gives birth unless there's any problems." Sarah stated.
"Okay, thank you bye." Sam said quickly before she opened the door and exited with Shadow.
"Thank you." Tom chuckled before he followed his wife out there and they began the short walk home as Sam had insisted that she wanted to go for a walk, rather than drive there.
"Hello?"
"Hi Fletch." Sam said cheerily down the phone.
"Hiya, any sign of Baby Kent yet?" He asked excitedly.
"Nope. But we have got a proposal for you."
"Right." Fletch replied hesitantly.
"You know that Shadow is pregnant?"
"Yeah."
"How would you like to have one of the puppies for free?" Sam asked.
"What? No, I can't accept a puppy, you could get £700 or £800 for one of those at least." Fletch stated.
"Yeah, but it would mean more to us, if we knew that Shadow's extra pup would go to a good home. And I would only have that guarantee if you had her. Honestly fletch, if you want one, you can have one and besides we're on a doctors salary, the money isn't a problem." Sam replied.
"Will have to have a chat with Nat first." Fletch stated.
"Chat to me about what?" Sam heard down the phone.
"Fletch we can talk later, just let me know when you decided yeah?" Sam said.
"Yeah sure, bye."
"I think my stomach is the size of a pingpong ball at the moment." Sam grumbled as she placed the plate of food that had barely been touched on the table in front of her and then she leant back on the sofa again - she preferred curling up in the arm chair but it was sometimes a tight squeeze with Sam, her bump and Shadow who was a little bigger than usual in a one seater armchair. With the baby squashing her internal organs, she could only just manage to eat a few mouthfuls before she felt full. But she would usually be hungry again within an hour or two. "Sorry, I can't eat any more." Sam apologised as she felt bad that Tom had spent time cooking and she had eaten so little of it.
"It's alright, more for me." Tom quipped. "Shall we do perineal massage again tonight?" Tom suggested. Several weeks ago, Sam had shared her fear with Tom that she was scared of ripping during the upcoming birth because she was a short, usually thin woman and she certainly didn't want an episiotomy.
"Yeah but let my dinner get down first." Sam stated as she too deep breaths to combat the full, stuffed feeling in her stomach because she had eaten as much as she could so she didn't hurt Tom's feelings but she had ignored her own body telling her to stop eating. "I'll get it; it's probably Fletch." Sam stated as the phone had begun ringing so she heaved herself up and went into the kitchen to grab the phone.
"Hello?"
"Any sign of baby Kent yet?" Fletch asked cheekily because he knew it annoyed Sam every time someone at work (I.e. Robyn) asked her if she had had any signs of labour.
"Fletch." Sam growled.
"Okay, I was just kidding. Is the puppy offer still available?"
"Of course it is."
"Well then we'd love to have one of them. I spoke with Nat and we thought that we could give it to the kids as an early christmas present because we assumed that the puppy wouldn't be able to leave Shadow for a few weeks will she?"
"Yeah Shadow is due to give birth in the same week as me, and then we won't let you take your one probably around eight to ten weeks after the birth because we'll need to wean them off breastfeeding and get them all of their shots etc." Sam explained.
"Okay. Well thank you very much for this, the kids are gonna love having a pet. They've always wanted one."
"Sam, are you ready for your perineal massage?" Tom shouted purposely and as he had intended, Fletch heard. Sam glared at Tom as he walked into the kitchen but he just playfully slapped her on the bum.
"That was not something that I wanted to hear." Fletch grimaced.
"Well as you've gathered, I've got somewhere to be so I'll see you at work on Monday." Sam smiled.
"Bye." Fletch chuckled and Sam put the phone back in it's holder whilst Tom put his plate in the dishwasher.
"Thank you for announcing that down the phone." Sam sighed sarcastically.
"Well in my defence, it was your idea for me to give you perineal massage in the first place about 3 weeks ago." Tom retorted.
"No, I said I was considering it because I was scared of tearing and you offered to do it for me." Sam argued.
"Well you didn't object to the offer." Tom smirked as he snaked his in arms around Sam's bump. "And I can't even reach my arms around you and touch my fingers the other side anymore; you're that big." Tom chuckled. "Go on, you jump on the bed and get your legs akimbo and I'll be in in a minute." Tom ordered as he playfully slapped Sam on the bum and then Sam waddled into their bedroom. Tom was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when Shadow came into the kitchen whining. "What's the matter with you you stupid mutt?" Tom huffed as he never usually went soft on Shadow, but he frowned as he realised she was acting a little odd. He then watched her nose and scratch at the back door which Tom opened only to watch Shadow quickly ran out only a few metres onto the grass before she squatted and emptied her bladder. "Wonderful, you're peeing as much as your favourite owner." Tom joked as Shadow ran back in and then she curled up in her bed again.
"Tom." Sam moaned from the bedroom.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." He laughed.
Later on in the evening, Sam, Tom and Shadow were sitting on the sofa watching TV whilst Sam was nibbling away at an apple as she had gotten hungry after her small dinner.
"Tom... I've been thinking. And..."
"How many times have I warned you about doing that?" Tom joked and a silence fell upon them for a few moments before Sam spoke up.
"I've changed my mind about what I said on my birth plan." Sam admitted.
"Right." Tom said slowly as he muted the TV so that they could talk properly as he prompted for her to continue.
"I want a home birth." Sam stated eventually.
"What's made you change your mind now?" Tom asked curiously because she had been fine with the idea of a hospital birth for months.
"I don't know I just... I was reading about on the internet about stories of women's births. And for me, there're five main things that I want the environment to be when I give birth: I want somewhere private, dark, warm, safe and quiet." Sam explained. "And where better than in our own home? For all we know, I could end up giving birth on a ward rather than in a room by myself; you know what the NHS are like and I'd hate to be on a ward. I want to wear whatever I want without worrying about what other people think and more importantly, I really don't want people shoving their hands where the sun don't shine." Sam retorted and Tom chuckled before he began to things through.
"Well we'll have to get in contact with a midwife and-"
"No. No midwife." Sam interrupted quietly but sternly. "Just me, you and our baby." Sam said softly.
"And you've thought about this?" Tom queried.
"Tom I promise you this is not one of those things where I want one thing one minute and another the next; this is what I really want." Sam stated clearly. "And I just want you to support my decision." She added hopefully.
"If it's what you want then I'm supporting you 100%." Tom nodded. "But I do still get to physically deliver our son and cut the cord right?"
"Of course."
"Are you sure you don't want a midwife? We could ask Tess." Tom suggested.
"Tom I'm sure in your million years of medicine that you have delivered more than one baby and trust me I have too, so two doctors are perfectly capable of delivering a baby. If there are complications then I will of course, let you take me to a hospital. But at the moment, I've had a very health to pregnancy with no complications whatsoever and a home birth will be safe."
"My 'million years of medicine'?" Tom laughed. "I'm only two years older than you." He added.
"Yeah you're practically prehistoric." Sam joked. But would Sam get her ideal birth? Or would there be complications?
Coming up: Tom is asked to do overtime and Sam wakes up at 2am with a craving for fruit.
Thanks for reading, please review :)